Houchin talks about the importance of self-improvement in his essay about altruism. He agrees with Aristotle that "the good person must be a self-lover," and that to be wholeheartedly altruistic, one must be self-interested.
The amount of focus Houchin places on the self reminds me of Descartes' theory "I think, therefore I am" in the sense that one only knows that he is existent. If I am all that I know to exist, then shouldn't I be mainly interested in my self? Of course, it would be useless to stay stagnant and it would be negative to become morally unjust, so in order to be good, one must focus on improving himself.
This way, Houchin makes sense because I can only change myself and nobody else, so I should work on improving myself to be good, or virtuous.
The question is whether or not this is too extreme - is Houchin focusing too much on the self?
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